Blair's cabinet

The Blair cabinet was formed by Tony Blair in May 1997, shortly after the British general election on May 1, 1997 . These elections had marked the first change of government in 18 years ( Margaret Thatcher had ruled from 1979 to 1990; from then on John Major ).

Blair had been chairman of the Labor Party since July 1994 and had reoriented it (" New Labor ").

The 1997 elections were labeled a "bloodbath" for the Conservative Party . She lost more than half of her previous mandates, including all in Scotland and Wales . Labor won the largest majority for any party in British history (179 more than the opposition).

Blair and Labor also won the next two elections ( June 2001 and May 2005 ).

Blair (born May 6, 1953) was the youngest Prime Minister of the 20th century (see also list of British Prime Ministers ).

Blair's cabinets have seen numerous changes over the course of Blair's three terms. At the beginning of the first term the UK unemployment rate fell; the UK economy was doing relatively well. Many European countries practiced an austerity policy in order to meet the requirements for the introduction of the euro ; in East Asia (including Japan ) there was the Asian crisis in 1997 and 1998 , a financial, currency and economic crisis. In the first half of 1998 Blair presided over the European Union ( 15 members at the time ).

On the situation from 1997 to 2007

In autumn 2000 there were protests across the country against high or rising fuel prices. The Tories had good poll numbers and were starting to raise their hopes for the May / June 2001 election . Because the BSE epidemic flared up again in spring 2001 , the election was postponed from May 3rd to June 7th. The Labor candidates received almost as many votes as in the previous election. The chairman of the Tories, William Hague (* 1961), then resigned; Iain Duncan Smith (* 1954) succeeded him. In some industrialized countries (including Great Britain's important trading partners Germany, Italy and France) there was an economic crisis at this time (one of the causes was the bursting of the dot-com bubble on stock exchanges). There was no recession in the UK; the financial sector grew.

Britain's trade deficit has been growing for many years. In 1997 it was 18 billion euros; In 2007 it was 119 billion euros. The national debt increased sharply. For example, the debt ratio in 2003 was 3.4%, in 2004 3.48% 2005 3.41% 2006 2.74% and 2007 2.83% of GDP .

Blair I Cabinet: May 1997 to June 2001

• Tony Blair - 'Prime Minister of the United Kingdom', First Lord of the Treasury (= "Lord High Treasurer") and Minister for the Civil Service (since 1968 an integral part of the Prime Minister's office)

• John Prescott - Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions
• Gordon Brown - Chancellor of the Exchequer and Second Lord of the Treasury
• Derry Irvine, Baron Irvine of Lairg - Lord Chancellor
• Ann Taylor, Baroness Taylor of Bolton - Lord President of the Council & Leader of the House of Commons
• The Lord Richard - Lord Privy Seal & Leader of the House of Lords
• Alistair Darling - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• David G. Clark - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office Minister
• Robin Cook - Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
• Jack Straw - Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Jack Cunningham - Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
• Frank Dobson - Secretary of State for Health
• George Robertson - Secretary of State for Defense
• Harriet Harman - Secretary of State for Social Security and Minister for Women
• David Blunkett - Secretary of State for Education and Employment
• Margaret Beckett - Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and President of the Board of Trade
• Chris Smith - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• Clare Short - Secretary of State for International Development
• Mo Mowlam - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
• Donald Dewar - Secretary of State for Scotland
• Ron Davies - Secretary of State for Wales
• Gavin Strang - Minister for Transport

The following also took part in the cabinet:

• Nick Brown - Chief Whip
• John Morris - Attorney General

Reshuffles

• July 1998 - Margaret Beckett becomes Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons. Baroness Jay of Paddington becomes Lord Privy Seal, Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women. Stephen Byers becomes Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Ann Taylor becomes Chief Whip in what is now a position in the Cabinet. Jack Cunningham becomes Cabinet Office Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Nick Brown becomes Secretary of Agriculture. Alistair Darling becomes 'Social Security Secretary'. Peter Mandelson becomes cabinet member as 'Trade & Industry Secretary'. John Reid becomes Transport Minister, which is no longer a Cabinet position (Reid continues to attend Cabinet meetings). Lord Richard , Harriet Harman , David G. Clark and Gavin Strang are leaving the cabinet. The 'Trade Secretary' no longer uses the title 'The President of the Board of Trade'.
• October 1998 - Alun Michael becomes 'Welsh Secretary'. Ron Davies is leaving the cabinet.
• December 1998 - Peter Mandelson resigns because of the Hinduja affair . Stephen Byers becomes Trade & Industry Secretary. Alan Milburn becomes Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
• May 1999 - John Reid becomes Scottish Secretary. Donald Dewar is leaving the cabinet.
• July 1999 - Paul Murphy becomes Welsh Secretary. Alun Michael leaves the cabinet.
• October 1999 - Andrew Smith becomes Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Geoff Hoon becomes Defense Secretary. Alan Milburn becomes Health Secretary. Peter Mandelson returns to the cabinet as Northern Ireland Secretary. Mo Mowlam becomes Cabinet Office Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Lord Williams becomes Attorney General . John Morris , George Robertson , Jack Cunningham and Frank Dobson are leaving the cabinet.
• January 2001 - Peter Mandelson resigns as Northern Ireland Secretary; he is followed by John Reid . Helen Liddell succeeds Reid as Scottish Secretary.

Web links

• The Public Whip - Ministerial Whirl shows Tony Blair's cabinet reshuffle ( java applet )
• Franz Walter : 10 years of the "Blair Revolution": the fall of a sky-striker (in: Spiegel May 1, 2007)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Der Spiegel 51/1997: Tony Blair
2. ^ French economy in trouble . In: BBC News , August 20, 2003. 
3. ↑ de.statista.com: Great Britain: Budget balance from 2003 to 2013 in relation to gross domestic product (GDP)